McKeller Flash Fiction Challenge Submissions
by dwparsnip
Summary: A response to koinekid and DaniWilder's challenge. Rodney and Jennifer get a rare day off together. More chapters added.
1. Days Off

Wow…it's been so long since I've posted something that I'm not sure what to put here.

Don't own Stargate Atlantis…MGM does as far as I know.

This is a response to Koinekid and DaniWilder's McKeller Flash Fiction Challenge. It comes in at 299 words.

As for the song, DaniWilder knows it. You young whippersnappers may have to Google the lyrics. ;)

* * *

Days off were never a guaranteed thing on Atlantis, particularly for them. If it wasn't Jennifer being called away, then Rodney was.

It happened often enough that a routine developed when that happened: Rodney would catch up on the cursed performance evaluations Woolsey was always trying to get him to do, while Jennifer would catch up on reports and personal correspondence.

Today, Jennifer was doing the latter. She sat forlornly at the desk in her quarters, music drifting around the room from the speaker in her laptop as she tried to finish a letter to one of her best friends. She proofread it one more time and glanced at the clock on the screen. Rodney figured he'd be an hour, so she cringed when she saw that he had only been gone for twenty minutes.

She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes as she concentrated on the voice of one her favorite singers emanating from the laptop, then almost jumped when a pair of hands rubbed along her shoulders.

"Hey," she said happily as she stood up and faced Rodney. "I thought you said you were going to be an hour."

Rodney shrugged as he placed his hands on her hips and drew her closer to him. "I told Radek what to do and left."

He glanced to the laptop with a playful grimace and Jennifer blushed. He never was fussy about that singer. To forestall whatever comment was coming she leaned forward and kissed him.

When they broke apart she said, "I love you."

Rodney's eyes darted towards the laptop as a certain refrain drifted by their ears and he smirked. He leaned into her and just before his lips found hers he recited the lyrics, "You took the words right out of my mouth."


	2. Moving On is Hard to Do

Well, maybe the floodgates have opened a little.

Another submission for Koinekid and DaniWilder's McKeller Flash Fiction challenge. Blame DaniWilder for getting me started.

300 words exactly, according to Word.

I don't own Stargate Atlantis...MGM does.

* * *

Jennifer's feet moved as though they were mired in thick mud. Her mind had decided she didn't want to go home and face the cruel reality of the situation, yet her body kept moving towards the door, and the bitter bile that usually resided low in her stomach rose higher with each heavy step.

She had come to the agonizing realization a week ago that it simply wasn't working. She acknowledged to herself that she and Rodney had been foolish and careless believing, erroneously, that any reservations they'd had could be dealt with. She hadn't yet told a soul about her epiphany.

It was time she told Rodney.

A moment later she was before their door and she tried unsuccessfully to swallow down her anxiety along with the sour taste in the back of her throat.

Finally she opened the door and stepped inside.

He was sitting on the couch facing her, and when his eyes rose to meet hers she saw in them the same things she felt within herself.

He stood up quickly and stepped towards her. "It isn't working, is it?"

Jennifer smiled sadly at his directness. "No, Rodney."

Rodney breathed a sad sigh and nodded once. He opened his arms, and as she stepped into his hug he said, "I'm sorry."

"Me too," she replied as she cuddled her face against his chest. "I just miss our old room. I thought us having bigger quarters would be nice but…"

"It just isn't the same," he agreed. "I'll tell Woolsey we want our old room back in the morning."

Relief blossomed in her chest and she smiled as she looked up at him. "Can we tell him now and move our things back tomorrow?"

Rodney smiled and nodded as he took her hand in his. "Right now."


	3. The Shower 600 plus words sorry

This started out as a submission for koinekid and DaniWilder's Flash Fiction thing. Problem was I couldn't get it under 300 words. As of now it's 676. Oh well. I was told to post it anyway, so here it is.

MGM owns it all. I own nothing.

* * *

Rodney waited for the door to close behind him before allowing himself the pleasure of relaxing enough to sigh. It had been a long day full of repairs that were quickly becoming all too commonplace, not to mention rather menial for someone of his awesome intellect and abilities.

And to top it all off, he'd spent the last hour up to his waste in wires and crystals trying to repair Sheppard's favorite Jumper. The damage was so severe and specialized that Rodney wouldn't have had a clue how it happened if he hadn't actually been with Sheppard when the damage was caused.

By Sheppard being Sheppard, of course.

To make matters even worse, Zelenka had been continuously buzzing in his ear about some sort of plumbing problem in one of the residential sections of the city. The incessant nagging had gotten so bad that he'd informed the Czech in no uncertain terms that unless the problem affected his quarters, he simply didn't give a damn. Radek then muttered something in Czech that sounded particularly nasty and left him in peace.

By the time he'd finished with the Jumper, his patience and tolerance of anyone who wasn't a beautiful blond doctor that loved him despite his eccentricity was dangerously low. It was so low in fact, that he'd decided for the safety of everyone in the city, the best thing for him to do was take the rest of the evening off, take a nice relaxing bath and wait for Jennifer to come home after her shift was over.

He headed towards the bathroom and stopped in his tracks when the door opened and he was enveloped in a cloud of steam.

_Jennifer must have gotten off early!_ thought Rodney with utter delight.

He quickly discarded his sweat stained clothes and tiptoed over to the shower, sparing only enough time for a maniacal grin and some dirty thoughts before grabbing the edge of the shower curtain and yanking it open.

Time stopped.

And started again with the exasperated shout of, "McKay!"

Rodney jumped back and, with speed that would have surprised most, grabbed a towel to wrap around waist as his shower curtain was torn off its hooks and hastily wrapped around the waste of…

"Sheppard!" growled Rodney. He tightened his grip on his towel just to make sure it was not going anywhere and exposing him to the person in his shower. "What the hell are you doing in my shower?"

A thoroughly wet John Sheppard, oblivious to the water spraying against his now covered body, replied defensively, "The water isn't working in my quarters. I was training with Ronon and sweating like a racehorse, so when I ran into Jennifer and told her about it, she said I could use your shower."

Rodney stared at his friend, who finally seemed to notice the stream of water beating against him and reached down to turn it off.

Rodney glanced quickly at the door and then turned back to Sheppard, realized the Colonel was covered only by a shower curtain and turned away again to face the wall. "Well hurry up and get out before Jennifer…"

"Before Jennifer what?"

Both men turned in the direction the new voice had come from, identical mortified looks upon their faces.

Jennifer stood in the doorway to the bathroom, trying desperately not to laugh at the hilarious scene before her. It became more difficult by the second as the situation sunk in for both men. She stared at them for another few seconds, then crossed her arms across her chest and lifted her right eyebrow as if demanding an explanation.

John and Rodney started stammering explanations and Jennifer maintained an air of indignation as they went on and on, talking non-stop yet actually saying very little. It wasn't until four minutes later that her strong willpower abandoned her and a smile, bright and wide, appeared on her face- right around the time that Rodney finally noticed that John was using her vanilla scented body wash and her favorite extra soft, hot pink sponge.


	4. You Stink, I Stink

MGM still owns it. Just wish they'd do something with it.

464 words.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

* * *

Jennifer looked around her quarters and sighed so heavily that her lung expansion almost hurt her chest. She missed Rodney something fierce, and the worst part of it was he hadn't even left the city.

Jennifer leaned back on her bed and stretched her arms out above her head and gently brought her body into a satisfying stretch. Once her muscles had been contented Jennifer let them relax, though she remained in the same position. It had been a long three days for all of them since a surprise Wraith attack had left Atlantis in shambles and injuries galore. Rodney had been engrossed with round the clock essential repairs, and she'd spent virtually every hour of the last seventy-two in the Infirmary, taking only the barest of moments to eat and refresh herself before heading back.

_Speaking of which,_ she thought as a pungent smell wafted across her nostrils, _I stink._ She tilted her head to the left and sniffed, then groaned disgustedly into the room. _I so need a shower._

Jennifer was too exhausted to move, but a gentle sniff to the right was more then enough to motivate her to get up and head to the bathroom. She looked into the mirror and winced at the dark patches underneath her eyes and her frizzy hair. She sighed again and peeled the clothes from her body, not even bothering to put them in the hamper and opting instead to throw the insanely odorous garments in the corner for later disposal, preferably incineration.

She stepped into the shower and turned it on. After a moment of fiddling with the faucet to get the correct temperature, she stood underneath the nozzle with her hands on the wall helping to keep her upright and let the hot water beat down upon her. She had her eyes closed and heard nothing but the noise from the shower, so she nearly had a heart attack when she felt a pair of hands fall onto her shoulders.

She whirled around, sending her wet hair whipping around her face and nearly sending her into an uncontrolled spin on the slick floor. Fortunately, Rodney managed to help her stay vertical by grabbing her hands and holding on tight.

Jennifer was about to unleash a tongue lashing that he wouldn't soon forget, but the powerful realization that Rodney was in the shower with her had her experiencing feelings that overrode her anger.

She gently pulled him towards her so that their bodies touched and Rodney said, "You stink."

In no mood to play games of any kind, Jennifer lifted her hand up to rest on the back of his head and she slowly drew him towards her. Still, she couldn't help but have the last word before their lips touched. "You reek."


	5. The Best Medicine

419 words. MGM still owns it.

Opinions?

* * *

"How are you feeling, Rodney?" asked Sheppard as he approached his friend's infirmary bed. Twelve hours earlier his team had come back after Rodney- klutz that he could be- decided to go sledding down a hill without a sled. Of course it didn't help that it was summer on that part of the planet they had visited and as such there had been no snow either. He'd taken quite the tumble down a thirty meter embankment, garnering multiple abrasions and bruises for his effort. In retrospect, the image of Rodney rolling down the little hill was funny, though it hadn't been at the time, and in truth it hadn't been until Keller had guaranteed him that Rodney would be fine and that he wasn't seriously injured.

Sheppard gave Keller a nod as she finished checking the bandage around Rodney's left wrist and waited for Rodney to answer.

"Everything hurts," Rodney finally replied with something between a whimper and a moan. "I feel like I've been run over by a hive."

Sheppard gave his friend an understanding nod and then noticed the very sympathetic look Rodney received from Jennifer.

John was surprised a second later when Keller's eyes looked up into his. "Excuse us, Colonel," she said in a voice that brokered no argument. She stood up and ushered John several feet away saying as she did, "I just need to check something." She turned around and pulled the curtain across behind her, cutting off his view of Rodney.

John could hear Jennifer say something, though he couldn't make out what it was. It must have been a warning or something because a second later there was a muffled moan followed by some weird noises that he couldn't identify. John was just about to lean in closer to the curtain when it was pulled back with a flourish.

"You can go in now, Colonel," said Jennifer a little breathlessly as she strode past him.

John watched Jennifer sashay away and then walked towards Rodney's bed. He brought up solid when he saw Rodney with a wide smile on his face and a look of peace about him that he'd never seen from the Canadian before. It all clicked into place for Sheppard: a happy Rodney, a breathless Jennifer and noises from behind a closed curtain that he now understood to be kissing.

Sheppard folded his arms across his chest and gave Rodney a smirk. "How are you feeling now, Rodney?"

Rodney sighed and said in his happy voice, "Comfortably numb."


End file.
